Month: April 2017

The gravestone of Robert Prager, a German who was lynched by a mob in Collinsville, Illinois in 1918.

I was honored to be one of those who spoke during an eight-minute segment on the anti-German hysteria of World War I broadcast Friday, April 7, on NPR. In it, I discussed the names of streets with German streets that were Anglicized. The in-depth piece showed the typical excellent of NPR and included stories from historians throughout the country. To listen to the part where I’m quoted, go to the third link that says “listen.” You may also want to the other two links, too.

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Hey, everybody. It appears the NPR segment on German Americans in WW I I talked about in a post earlier this week will be on at about 5:20 p.m. EDT. It doesn’t look like I’ll be on, which is fine with me. But it still seems like it’ll be worth tuning in.

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Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes. It’s true with me. In a few days, a 2-1/2-year-old interview of me will air on NPR.

In June of 2014, NPR’s All Things Considered Senior Host Robert Siegel interviewed me about Beer, Brats, and Baseball: German-Americans in St. Louis and my work with the German American Heritage Society of St. Louis to get recognition for the six German streets in St. Louis whose names were changed during World War I. The idea was to use the interview at the Coffee Cartel in the Central West End in programs airing in August or September, around the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, on the anti-German hysteria during the war. But not long after that, Siegel’s producer Art Silverman e-mailed me apologetically to say NPR had decided against running those programs and my interview.

Then a couple of days ago, I heard again from Siegel’s producer. “It’s been a while, but we’re finally airing the interview with you,” Silverman wrote in an e-mail. “We’re using your interview (finally!) next week to mark the 100th anniversary of the US entry into the First World War.”

The interview will run some time during All Things Considered on April 7. In St. Louis, it airs at 3 p.m. and basically repeats at 5 p.m. on KWMU, 90.7. If you’re outside of St. Louis, check when All Things Considered runs on your local NPR station. Art Silverman said he’d get back to me about the time within the program. I’ll let you know specifics of the time when I get them. If you miss it, I’ll post a link to the interview afterward.